Joke-O-Joke-4

Vice-Chancellor turns marriage counsellor:

Anna University vice-chancellor D Viswanathan seems to seize any opportunity to impose his views on an audience. Reporters were not surprised when he came up with a ‘logical’ explanation for the institution’s good placement record. Addressing students at a function organised to distribute offer letters for students recruited through off-campus placement, he said, “Today you have landed good jobs because you did not use your cell phones due to which there were no diversions. Now, when you start working, you should send money back to your parents and not to your girl friends. (He assumed he was talking to an all-male audience.) You should listen to them, be responsible children and have an arranged marriage.” If this did not seem ludicrous enough, his speech was greeted with applause from the audience while his two staff members looked on with admiration.

Not able to get the direct link to TOI - EPaper link

Joke-O-Joke-3
Joke-O-Joke-2
Joke-O-Joke-1

King Khan might not like it

He had, just moments ago, in response to another question, said he had only seen three Hindi films in his life. [Wife Bhavna, whom he met when both were students at New York's Tisch School of Arts, and proposed to through a fortune cookie, is the expert, he said].

"What's that guy's name, we were talking about him at lunch, Shah Rukh Khan, yeah, I think all three movies had him in them. There was this thing, he is touching her in the rain, what was the name of that movie, Kabhi something... [UTV CEO Ronnie Screwvala, co-producer of Night's upcoming film, helpfully supplied Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham]... right, that one; that was kind of cool. And I remember there was an old one, it was supposed to be very salacious at the time, wait, Shivam something? [Satyam Sivam Sundaram, supplied the ever helpful Screwvala]... right, that one, right there, that was smokin', that one. I don't remember the name of the third one -- wait, Devdas, there you go."

Manoj Night Shyamalan

Rare photo

TN CM Karunanidhi without his trademark dark glasses ..clicked by vikatan during his Bday celebrations.

Interesting Evolution

Bdelloid Rotifers - It sounds greek to me...But these species seem to have achieved something that no creature in this world has achieved.

The bdelloid rotifers are ancient asexuals: they appear to have been living entirely without sex for more than 85 million years.

NYTimes - Olivia Judson's blog - Wild life - The Weird Sisters, has more such startling revelations.

"..evolving asexuality isn’t the hard part. The hard part is making an evolutionary success of it.....asexuality evolves often, but rarely persists for long: asexuals typically go extinct soon after they appear. The swift extinction of asexuals, and the absence of big asexual groups, suggests that sex is essential for long-term evolutionary success: giving up sex is a Bad Idea, a kind of evolutionary suicide.
..
How are they managing to flourish despite this epic period of abstinence? For they do flourish: bdelloids are everywhere
..
It now looks as though the bdelloids do acquire new genes from time to time — that mutation isn’t their only source of genetic novelty. Yet their means of getting new genes is unlike anything previously known for an animal. Namely: they seem to pick up genes from the environment, and add them into their genomes.
..
No one knows how the bdelloids pick up these genes. One idea is that it may be due to another oddity of their lifestyle: their ability to dry up and blow away. When the piece of moss they are living in dries up, these animals often dry up, too. It’s a state of suspended animation — add water and, all being well, they come back to life as frisky, or even friskier, than before. (This isn’t unique to bdelloids — some other small animals have evolved to endure dessication. But most of these others can only do it at particular stages of their lives. The bdelloids can do it at any time. They can also — probably as a consequence of their dessication abilities — survive high levels of radiation. Much higher than other animals can.) During the drying and rehydration, cell membranes may become disrupted, and their DNA fragmented. Perhaps all this makes it easier for stray bits of foreign DNA to get into the cells that will become eggs.

What to say...Nature has more than its share of surprises!!

Business School business in India

Not very surprising... esp. when we have more than 1600 business schools in India!
From Business Week:

The Business Barometer study was issued last month by the the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (Assocham), the country's leading chamber of commerce organization. It found that beyond the top 30 institutions, most business school professors and lecturers in India's business schools are ignorant of the world's major economic trends and key developments, such as the subprime crisis in the U.S. Few read business publications.

The study found that only 6% of the 258 faculty members she surveyed read any business newspaper on a regular basis, with steady readership of business magazines "negligible."

Setting a high standard for Indian business schools by satisfying a quality accrediting agency is an important step for Indian business schools, said Assocham's Bhutani. An improved accreditation process would have a ripple effect on all Indian business schools, he continued, forcing them to improve the quality of teachers, materials, and professional development.

Quite true...but all this accrediting business can spin off a business by itself..like engineering college accreditation.

Kurinji Malar - Na Parthasarathy

Finally finished reading Kurinji Malar purchased at the Chennai Book Fair. It is considered a classic among Tamil novels. It quite lived up to its name.
Na. Pa moves ahead of just telling a captivating story - the novel is more of moral science in disguise. The lead characters - Aravindan & Poorni are described as epitome of goodness. The keywords - Ozhukam, thuimai, nermai, mangalam, kolghai are constantly seen through the narrative. It has this old world feel...the money is discussed in annas & paisas..;-)) Good one time read.

Trivia: M.K.Stalin, the Tamilnadu C.M in waiting, acted in the DD - Serial Kurinji Malar as Aravindan. I still remember flashes of it.

Parenting - Poem

Good One!

http://www.cgcreations.org/poems/forgets.html